Our regular meeting for the last council meeting of the month was held today. On tap was the city council agenda and ways to recover the cost for the fire/police pension plan.
On the council agenda you can always clink on the link to my website to see what is on the docket. BEWARE of 325 as it has on the agenda the city making all city owned venues as gun free zones. One only need to look at VA Tech to see how gun free zones work out for the criminal. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=44078 http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/03/23/school.shooting.02/index.html Since Mr. Burris has been hired his whole mission has been to sell the public on the need to tax themselves once more this time to the tune of $ 40 MILL a year. The reason for this money is two-fold the city failed to fund the pension in the appropriate manner as per the actuarial required amount and the fund also lost money on investments and because of inflated return amounts projected. The city probably feels pretty certain this tax increase will pass since the last few increases passed without even breaking a sweat, plus the ace in the whole is to show and tell the people that essential services will be cut if the increase doesn't go through. One other option in case of failure is to keep putting the measure on the ballot until the people get so tired of looking at it that it passes. Some of the ideas that were bantered about on helping the current idea or creating a new idea are as follows. Voters to rescind the last 3 tax increases and this amount would be used to help get to the 1% as requested. Springfield residents to get a tax increase exemption card, meaning only out of town people pay into the fund. Keep in mind we already have special assessment tax districts in Springfield meaning in some locations you could be paying up to 9% in sales taxes. HELLO CALIFORNIA. [?] Ways to increase the funding of the pension system are as follows but were not limited to benefit concerts donations (private/corporate) reductions in the city budget, such as require city employees to fund more of their own retirement fund raisers, such as a "back the badge" charitable donation at retailers throughout Springfield similar to the MDA and various other fund raisers. [?] This is just a partial list of the ideas and we are willing to entertain other concepts which would help the pension system get funded faster. Let's be proactive and research these ideas with ways that the private sector can and will come to the aid of those who have been wronged by governmental action or inaction. I applaud the rank & file for putting up with this problem for so long and I condemn the city council, city management past and present (there are a few exceptions) for allowing this situation to get completely out of hand and getting to a severe point where funding this issues is almost impossible. -- http://votetom4council.webs.com/ http://417-political-pundit.blogspot.com/ www.moliberty.org "lite a fire for a man he'll be warm for a day, lite the man on fire and he'll be warm the rest of his life". Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -Pericles (430 B.C.) In fact, there is a direct correlation between loyalty to one's spouse and the "trustworthiness, sincerity, honesty and strength of leadership" required to lead a nation. ~John Edwards~ "no cause is lost if there is but one fool to fight for it" ~Will Turner~ ~Pirate's of the Caribbean @ World's End~ Save your property rights www.mo-cpr.org http://www.radiofreeliberty.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ This is a Free Speech forum. The owner of this list assumes no responsibility for the intellectual or emotional maturity of its members. If you do not like what is being said here, filter it to trash, ignore it or leave. If you leave, learn how to do this for yourself. If you do not, you will be here forever. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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